Could Victoria fill the gap left by Downton?

It’s being billed as the natural successor to Downton and this time it has been filmed in Yorkshire. Phil Penfold goes behind the scenes of Victoria.

Without Yorkshire, and its rich heritage of historic piles, one of the most elaborate screen dramas could never have been made. Victoria, the new eight-hour series from ITV, was almost entirely shot on location in the county, with hardly a historic property missing out.

Author Daisy Goodwin, who has written the series and is also executive producer, admits: “Yorkshire has played a pivotal role, and I take my hat off to our location scouts for their tenacity and their imagination. Most of the backdrops are real life Yorkshire, and I simply cannot remember the number of places we went to. The list is too long.”

To refresh Goodwin’s memory, they include Castle Howard standing in for rooms at Kensington Palace; the great drive at Bramham Park doubling for the avenue at Windsor Castle; Allerton Castle playing Prince Albert’s home; some of Newby Hall interiors remade as the lavishly decorated Brook’s Club in Mayfair; and Beverley Minster converted into Westminster Abbey for the Coronation scenes. Also on the list is Harewood House, Wentworth Woodhouse, parts of York and Whitby pier.

“We also used a lot of Yorkshire actors as extras,” adds Daisy. “At Beverley, we had an entire Territorial Army unit who turned up, and they were marvellous, because their posture was just right. There were other locations in the UK considered at first, but we pretty soon realised that with all the great homes and houses all with proximity to each other, that Yorkshire was the only place to be. It also meant that we could do a day’s filming, and then go back to a base in Leeds for both accommodation and post-production work.”

Stately homes aside, the other draw was the new Church Fenton Studios development. Victoria was the first production to be filmed in the converted aircraft hangar near Selby, which for some months became home to the interiors of Buckingham Palace. It’s a vast space and should ensure that other big budget dramas head north.

“That huge internal production space is the key factor in securing the big productions like Victoria that would otherwise have filmed elsewhere,” says Screen Yorkshire chief executive Sally Joynson. “Finding the right locations and a studio big enough to build the Buckingham Palace set was the priority for Mammoth Screen, who spent seven months filming in the region, generating work and income for local crew, location owners and the wider supply chain. It marks a major sea change for the film and TV industry in Yorkshire.”

There has been significant investment in Victoria and ITV is clearly hoping it will fill the gap left by Downton. “They are two different genres,” says Goodwin firmly. “Downton was fiction, Victoria is fact. The only similarity that the two have is that they were both set in a certain period. But Downton has had such a vast international success that it must stand alone. All we can hope for is that viewers will warm to Victoria’s story, and her remarkable life and times.”